A Borderlands Tale
by Pink Pandoracorn
Summary: Before 'After Jack,' this all happened! I started writing a sequel and realized I kept referencing stuff happening during game time, so I figured... Prequel time! Set during Borderlands 2, all the stuff we didn't see. From Gaige and Maya's POV, rated M for language and adult content.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Of course I don't own Borderlands! Of course not! Will not be updated as much as After Jack, but will be updated... Frequently.  
**

* * *

_**Gaige**_

Principal's office? I was going to the principal's office? I'd never been to the principal's office before, ever, because... well, whatever. I didn't think anyone was gonna care about my exemplary school record at this point.

Principal's office? And they hadn't even let me clean up. I was still covered in Marcy... Ew. Ew ew ew.

"Can I get, like, a towel?" My voice sounded like it was coming from super far away. "Or something? This is really gross." I was trying to avoid looking at myself as much as I possibly could. I was pretty sure that was an eyelid stuck to my- I gagged and closed my eyes. I wasn't in any danger of bumping into shit thanks to the two uniformed officers on either side of me, each holding onto one of my arms as we marched down to the office.

They didn't bother to answer me. My hands were awkwardly behind my back- handcuffs. I didn't need handcuffs. I didn't tell them that I could break their stupid handcuffs with, like, very little effort. I just wanted to go home. Have a shower. Drown myself in some hot chocolate.

I opened my eyes when I heard the door open. My principal, Mr. Hasting, was seated behind his wide, paper-covered desk. His brown suit was all wrinkled up and his tie was gone. His jowly face was tired. He didn't look happy. Well, that made two of us. There was one of stupid Marcy's stupid "Crime Buster Bots" beside him, all pathetic-looking. A wave of my hand and DT would destroy the hell out of it. But I just wanted to go home, and I suspected that attacking what was now a part of the police force would be a bad call on my part.

"Gaige," Mr. Hasting started, peering owlishly through his glasses. "Do you know why you're here?" His toupee was a little bit crooked and I tried to focus on it instead of Marcy's eyelid. That was definitely an eyelid. I could still see the shade of whore-blue eye shadow she used and two or three eyelashes.

I gagged again. It was sitting right there on my shoulder. "I gotta... Garbage can?" I asked desperately. No one moved. I bent down as much as the vise-like hands on my arms let me and just puked until my stomach was empty. I may or may not have been aiming for the officer on my right's shiny black shoes. I definitely hit. I straightened, twisting my head to wipe my head on my shoulder. My un-eyelidded shoulder. "Um, the incident in the auditorium?" I asked.

"That's right." Mr. Hasting was looking a little green himself. I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him. He wasn't even the one covered in Marcy! I swayed a little at the thought and swallowed hard. THE EYELID WAS STILL THERE. "What do you have to say for yourself, young lady?"

"Young lady?" Talking to me like I was two? Ok, now I was pissed. I drew myself up to my full height and looked down my nose at him, only possible because he was seated. "I am a woman of science. I am a GENIUS. I made Deathtrap first and I may have mentioned it unipolitics and she straight STOLE my idea." I cast a withering look at the poor excuse for a bot that was standing- legs, legs are bullshit- to his left. "You saw it perform. It's pathetic!"

I swear his forehead twitched, just above his eye. "Is that what led to your... altercation?"

"Uh, no. She started it. SHE attacked me. She pushed me, and Deathtrap just reacted like he was supposed to when someone does PHYSICAL VIOLENCE to someone else." I turned my withering look to him. "I can't believe this administration would be ok with students just attacking other students!"

He stared at me for a minute and cleared his throat. "Students being exploded on campus reflects very poorly on our school. I have no choice but to expel you."

"EXPEL ME?" I shrieked. "You can't expel me! What are you going to do to Marcy? She stole my design, she ATTACKED me there in front of everyone, you can't just-"

"You're under arrest," one of the police officers said to me.

"Arrest? Screw this." It was effortless for me to snap the cuffs. I shook off the officer on my left and he may have crashed into the wall. In just a second, DT digistructed in front of me, drawing the other officer's attention away. And the first thing he did was take out that "Crime Buster Bot."

"Thanks, Babe!" I flicked Marcy's eyelid off my shoulder and got the hell out of there. I ran back down the hall. The hall was all lit up with flashing blue and red lights pouring in through the windows, but it was so quiet, so still. Deathtrap floated up beside me. "Don't mess with the bot," I said fiercely, my voice echoing a little in the empty corridor. I had to get away, but the school was SURROUNDED by police. Police that I knew were on Marcy's dad's payroll.

I ducked into a storage closet and shut the door, my heart hammering wildly in my ears. Deathtrap was still in the hall, but he would deconstruct in just a couple of seconds. I grabbed my ECHO where it was clipped to my belt and picked it up, relying on its faint glow to call my dad. "Daddy?" I asked softly.

"Honey, are you ok?" I could hear the relief in his voice. He was hushed, like he was trying to hide that he was talking to me. Smart move, Dad. "They won't let us back into the school."

"No, Dad, I'm not." My voice was shaking like I was going to cry. I couldn't cry. I had stuff to do. I took a deep, shaky breath. "I need help. I need to get out of here. Marcy attacked me and they arrested me and I need... I need help, Daddy."

"I'm coming, honey. Can you get to the Space Port?"

"Yes." I sniffed. I was NOT crying.

"Meet me there, sweetheart. You're going to have to get off the planet."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: The only sex in the story is happening... Now.**

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_**Maya**_

I was _really _happy to be off the interplanetary shuttle. Space travel hadn't really agreed with me and I was sitting on one of the hard benches, trying to relax. I leaned forward, my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands.

"Hey. You ok, kiddo?" The voice was a man's, smooth and concerned. He was right next to me, he had to be talking to me.

"Yeah," I said, not moving.

"Your first time in space?" I nodded. "If you get something to drink, it'll help," he continued. "Why don't you come and have a drink with me?"

It was among the worst pick-up lines that I'd heard- and I'd heard a good number very recently- but I had to smile. I looked up at him. He had a close-fitting mask clipped on his face; it was an amazing piece of work. His mouth turned up in a smile when I looked up at him and the mask moved just like skin would. His eyes were two different colors- one blue, one green. Heterochromia. He looked so familiar, where had I seen him before?

I was very enthusiastically rebelling against the Order and everything they stood for. Not rebelling, making up for lost time. Rebelling. A drink with a attractive man sounded like just the thing. "That would be great." I stood up and took his offered hand.

"My name is John." He tucked my hand in the crook of his elbow.

"I'm Maya."

John was dashing and very charming. He was well dressed, certainly more than anyone I'd ever seen. He wore a vest and an honest-to-god jacket, and a pocket watch. There was a shot of gray in his hair, running up from his forehead. I knew who he was- he'd come up in my research on Pandora. Had he lied to me? _Not really, Jack is a nickname for John. Getting to know him might help me find what I'm looking for._

There was a small bar in the space port and he took me there and bought me a drink. Wine. He ordered a bottle of wine and poured for both of us. He was well-spoken and he made me laugh. I let him fill my glass again and again.

"What are you doing out here?" I asked after a while.

"I'm here on business, I work for Hyperion. What brings an attractive girl like you to Pandora?" He had a great smile. Still not a lie. Being the head of Hyperion, he would most assuredly be on their payroll.

"I'm here to learn about sirens." I smiled back and gave him a flirtatious look through my eyelashes. "You don't mind that you're drinking with a siren, do you?" It was a leading question. If anyone knew about sirens on Pandora, it would likely be him.

"Of course not," he replied absently, completely missing my attempt at seduction. As I'd spoken, his eyes had left mine. "You're not the first one I've met." He was staring over my shoulder with a faraway look in his mismatched eyes.

"Really?" I asked. Now we were getting somewhere. Maybe he could introduce us. "What's her name?"

His eyes snapped to my face as though realizing where he was. He leaned forward, very slowly, and pressed his lips lightly against mine. Just the briefest of contact, a perfect first kiss. He pulled back a little, still inside my personal space, and trailed one finger down my bare arm. "I'm sorry, Maya. You're just so beautiful."

"No, it's fine," I said softly, smiling, enjoying the feel of his finger against my skin. His touch raised goosebumps in its wake. They'd kept me away from most casual physical contact at the monastery and I was still getting used it.

"Why don't we get out of here? I've got a room near here. It's not pretty, but it's... more comfortable."

He took my hand and held it all the way back to the hotel, fingers laced in mine. The hotel was pretty run down, but the linens were clean. We sat and flirted and he had more wine for me to drink.

After some time, he picked up his pocket watch and checked the time. "Hey, I need to make an ECHO call for work. Why don't I go and get us some pizza?" At my nod, he said, "You'll wait here for me, won't you?"

"Of course I will," I assured him and he left.

"Blake. Yeah, right here. I need that..." his voice trailed off as he walked away.

As I waited for him to come back, I took at look at the new Maliwan SMG I'd picked up before I'd left Athenas. It fired bullets charged with electrical energy and I loved the way it felt in my hands. The monks had kept me armed, of course, insisting on my personal safety. But they hadn't given me anything like this. It was just... beautiful.

In the silence, I couldn't help but think about him. He hadn't attacked me or insulted me in any way. He couldn't be as bad as they said he was. Bad press, it must have been. He was very charismatic, I would even go so far as to call him sweet. I was a little surprised that he wasn't surrounded by bodyguards- but then if he was liked, he wouldn't need to be.

John came back soon enough with two boxes. The big, flat pizza box, and a small, dark gray box with a yellow latch. He saw me looking at it. "It's a surprise for later," he said mysteriously as he set it down on one of the bedside tables.

We ate the pizza. We laughed, we drank wine while we sat at the head of the bed. I didn't fool myself into thinking this was love or anything like that, but I was having a very good time with him. He wasn't scared of me, he didn't seem to think I was some sort of goddess-person.

He deliberately took my wine glass and, leaning over me, placed it on the table on my side of the bed. He pulled back on the bed, mismatched eyes so close to mine, and he kissed me again. His tongue touched mine and I melted against him. He was talented with his mouth, kissing me with a thoroughness that left me light-headed. His fingers moved over my back until he found the zipper at the back of my bodysuit. He undressed me slowly, exploring every inch of exposed skin with his mouth, his tongue, until I felt like I was on fire, my fingers twisting desperately in the sheet beneath me. He grasped my hips and pulled me down on the bed.

This wasn't my first time with sex, but it was the first time anyone had ever made love to me. All of my previous experiences had been brief, furtive affairs born of desperation and finished quickly in an effort not to be caught.

He undressed and knelt between my legs and we came together in an explosion of sensation. I rolled my hips into him, my legs locked around him. My body sang as he brought on pleasure such as I'd never felt before...

We were lying side-by-side on the bed, and he said, "It's time for your surprise, Maya." He sat up and picked up the box and opened it.

It was wrong. The circle of metal in the box was wrong and evil and I could feel it. Just looking at it, the tattoos that covered the left side of my body started to ache. I sprang off the bed and lifted him into the air before I really thought about what I was doing. He was suspended there in my bubble of energy, looking down at me. He was angry.

"Maya? Maya, let me down," he instructed me firmly with the air of a man who was used to telling people what to do. "This is for your own good. You're going to let me down, now."

I picked up my SMG and emptied the clip into his body. I would not be held captive again! He fell on the bed in a pool of blood and I regarded his lifeless body with some satisfaction.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Gaige**_

My dad was waiting for me outside the Space Port. It hadn't really taken much effort to outrun Marcy's stupid Crime Buster Bots. Incompetence at its finest. Dad looked worried; his eyes looked so tired. I could see the relief flooding his face when he saw me. He looked a little worse for wear himself, nothing compared to the mess I was still mostly covered in, but his hair- auburn splashed with gray- looked a little singed.

I sped over to him and all but launched myself at him in a big hug. "Dad, it was horrible," I whimpered as he held me close to him. I always felt safe when he hugged me, and he didn't seem to care that I was a real mess. "They expelled me and arrested me and they're not doing anything to that bitch Marcy and she started the whole thing when she shoved me."

"She shoved you? Well, isn't that what Deathtrap is supposed to do?"

"Thank you! That's what I said." I pulled back and looked at him. "Are you... ok?"

He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Green eyes, just like mine. "I'm fine. I'm sure the police will be after me, but there's nothing they can prove." He grinned in earnest. "One golf cart and three cans of gasoline and they'll be sorting it out all night."

I couldn't help but be proud, my dad was the best dad around. I got my brains from him. My backpack was sitting on the floor beside him and he picked it up and offered it to me. "I brought some clothes and your favorite wrench." His voice caught and he cleared his throat. "So," he said after a minute, with forced lightness. "Have you thought about where you'll go?"

I swallowed against the painful lump in my own throat but it wouldn't go away. "Yeah. Um, Pandora? Vault hunting, or maybe I'll try and get a job with the Torgue Corporation."

"Let's go get your ticket, honey." We walked together into the station. This was the worst walk I'd ever taken. My shoes felt like they were filled with heavy metal, and not the super fun, Deathtrap-digistructing kind.

I opened the backpack and pulled a hat out. I put it on, pulling it down over my face. They were already talking about me on the news, and the last thing I needed was to be stopped in the Space Port, three inches from freedom.

Dad went up to the counter to buy my ticket and I hung back behind a potted plant, waiting for him to come back. This was... it. I'd assumed I'd be moving out on my own after school ended anyway- job/university. I had a full scholarship to Eden-5's best technical school, but that was... I wrinkled my nose. No university for me. And I'd be... considerably farther away.

I heard him talking to the ticket lady and in just a couple of minutes, he was walking toward me with the ticket. "You'll be leaving in just a little bit. You'll have to change shuttles a couple planets out, but this'll get you there. Why don't you go get changed while we wait?"

I did as he suggested and took the backpack into the nearby ladies' room. I stuffed the gore-covered clothes that had dried all stiff into the garbage in the bathroom. A little water, some pinkish soap from the dispenser, and some paper towels and I scrubbed my face and hands and hair as much as I could. The water looked so surreal, all reddish-black and bits of Marcy... Ew.

I got dressed in the new clothes quickly, tucking all of my wet red hair up into my hat. I caught a look at myself in the mirror. Green eyes wide and kind of wild-looking, skin so, so pale. So pale. I wrinkled my nose at my reflection and went back out to my dad.

"You should go and wait inside for your shuttle," he told me softly and I nodded. "I need to get out of here before those ridiculous robots actually do catch up with us."

I threw my arms around him and squeezed him tight. "Daddy, I... I love you. Thank you." Tears were flowing down my face like someone had turned on a faucet in my head.

"Hey," he said, and I could tell he was crying too. "Just get settled and then ECHO me and maybe I'll come visit. Right?"

I nodded against his chest. He was my dad. He was awesome. He was always supportive, even when I cut off my own arm and he had to take me to the hospital before I'd bled to death... And now. I knew it cost a lot of money to get all the way out to Pandora and he hadn't even blinked an eye. "I love you, honey," he said and I nodded again.

I pulled away and took one last look before gripping my backpack to me and heading into the terminal where I would catch my first shuttle.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Maya**_

I felt so stupid. I'd been so caught in my childish rebellion that I'd... done something very foolish.

I'd seen the "Wanted" poster go up the day after I'd, well, I'd killed him. I'd had to fight my way through a group of money-hungry bandits. They hadn't been prepared for someone who could suspend them in an alternate dimension and it hadn't gone well for them. But there would be more. If there was one thing Pandora didn't lack, aside from heat, it was bandits.

He hadn't died permanently, though, which boded rather poorly for me. Apparently Hyperion had installed "New-U" systems that would bring you back, if only you registered at them and were within their effective range- for a fee, of course. It made sense on a planet like this.

So now I was waiting on a train. They sure loved their trains on Pandora. My new companion was sitting on the ground a few feet off, banging his buzz-axe on the ground. He was a towering hulk of a man, scarred and heavily muscled with a psycho mask on his face and the orange pants of a convict. He had no hair and only the one eye peeking out from his mask, and he was completely crazy. So far, he'd yelled about poop and cockatiels and pain- but he'd saved my life. That counted for something, especially now that most of the people I met wanted to cash in on my life with Hyperion.

It seemed like an even more stupid idea to get on this train and go to this "Vault" I'd read about, after what I'd done, but I was almost desperate to learn more about sirens. The people who weren't trying to cash in on my bounty were trying to worship me- no one wanted to have a reasonable or knowledgeable conversation about sirens. That left the vault, even if it meant seeing John- Handsome Jack- again.

The train had arrived in the station, but they'd seen our little confrontation with the rats, and they were hesitant to open the doors and let us board. So we waited, sitting out under the hot sun.

At last one of the train compartments opened up. The omnipresent Hyperion computer voice said, "This car for vault-hunters."

"I guess that's me," I told my companion. Krieg. He'd given his name as Krieg. He got to his feet and watched me expectantly. I guess he was going with me. I entered the train car and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust from the bright sun outside to the dim, artificial light of the train car. There were already people in there. Three people, by the looks of it.

The door hissed shut. I looked behind me to check, but Krieg had not boarded when I did. I was... going to miss him. Maybe not the screaming about poop, but he'd been the first genuinely friendly face I'd seen since landing on this god-awful planet.

They were staring at me. Of course they were. I raised a challenging eyebrow and cocked my hip, lifting my bare left hand in front of me. If they were going to make this a problem, then I was more than ready to reciprocate. No one challenged me. I slid into the nearest seat and pulled out my book. I'd brought exactly one book with me from Athenas, positive that there would be somewhere to get more on Pandora. Apparently, though, the only publications available featured guns or naked women, or both. A lot of both.

I felt the train slide back into motion, carrying us along to the next stop. Where were we going? The vault? I wasn't entirely sure. All I knew from the radio ad was that perspective vault hunters were to be on _this_ train.

After about a minute, someone slid into the bench next to me. I turned just my head to look at him. He had thick brown hair, a handsome face, and a resolve-melting grin that would have probably ended up with some naked time if my last rebellious act hadn't been a poor decision that involved naked time with Pandora's fascist dictator who'd then tried to, well, I wasn't sure. Tried something unpleasant. I'd almost lost everything, of that I was sure, and that was enough to end my rebellion.

He draped his arm across the back of the seat, brushing his fingertips against my bare shoulder. "You are a sight for sore eyes, sweetheart." Was that an insignia on his forehead?

I lifted an eyebrow at him and turned my attention back to my book with a slight shake of my head. "Maya," I said out loud, mostly to my book.

"What's that, sweetheart?"

"Maya. Not sweetheart." My voice was almost cold. I just wanted to be left alone. Krieg probably would have chased him off. I was a little surprised to realize that I genuinely missed Krieg- I hadn't even spent all that long in his company.

"Like the posters?" I could feel the weight of his stare. "Hey, are you really a siren?"

I closed my eyes for a long moment, then opened them. He was still there. I opened my mouth to answer him- something sarcastic about really like marker fumes- but movement caught my eye. The yellow "Welcome Vault Hunters" sign fell off to reveal a , "To your doom" sign in red.

"Oh shit," the man beside me swore emphatically.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Gaige**_

No sooner had the shuttle landed than I was kidnapped. There were wanted posters of me everywhere and they had a LOT of zeros on them. I make it all the way to Pandora and then... Nothing.

Hyperion. That's who grabbed me. DT had put up a good fight, but there were just too many of them. They shot him up and then that was that.

It was cold. It was WAY cold. It was, in fact, snowing. I was stuck in the back of some sort of yellow truck-thing. Someone had thrown a thin blanket at me when I'd started going numb, but it wasn't really enough. I was getting desperate enough to try something.

They'd made the same mistake that the police on Eden-5 had. Handcuffs, in front of me this time like I wasn't really that much of a threat. The only reason I hadn't slipped the handcuffs yet was that there was no where for me to go, and there were enough of them that they'd just shoot DT and round me up again before I could get far away enough to get somewhere. Soon, though. Soon I was going to have to get away, or I was going to freeze to death.

There was a loud crack and then the driver of my truck-thing fell forward in a puddle of blood and purple goo. I looked around, alarmed. What the hell?

Another crack and one of the loaders walking along beside the vehicle fell. No blood, obviously, but the same purple goo.

The trucks all stopped and everyone was looking around for the shooter. Apparently this was my opportunity. I snapped the cuffs and digistructed DT. He went to work shredding Hyperion bad guys as more of them fell dead into puddles of purple goo. There was shouting and confusion... Perfect. I heard a piercing cry and some giant bird-thing swooped down among them, brutally attacking a Hyperion engineer, slicing through his neck with a spray of blood. Ew.

I jumped down from the truck and winced as I landed. The impact hurt my poor, cold feet so much. All I needed to do was get away and find something flammable and DT could use his laser to set it on fire and then maybe I could get warm. Get away first.

I hobbled away. No one noticed me, they were too busy looking for whoever was shooting them and trying to defend against my 'bot and that crazy bird. God, I hurt so much.

The shouting stopped. I hadn't gotten very far, but a glance behind me told me that everyone was dead. DT's time had run out and he'd disappeared. The bird was gone. Now I just needed to find somewhere to thaw out.

There were buildings around, spread among the hives of those bug-things. There were a lot of those bug-things, and I didn't think Deathtrap was up to taking on a whole army of them by himself. Shit. Things were not looking good for me.

"Hey." A man's voice, soft, behind me.

I turned around slowly, 'cause that's all I could manage. There was a tall guy standing behind me, the large bird-thing on his shoulder. He was wrapped all in red and he wore a pair of goggles. I was SO jealous of how not-freezing he looked. He carried a pistol, held loosely at his side and not pointed at me. That was a good sign, right? "What's a girl doing in the back of a Hyperion convoy?" He had a faint accent that I'd never heard on Eden-5.

I painfully drew myself up to my full height. It didn't really help. "I am a w-w-woman of ass-k-kickery and s-s-science. It's j-j-just b-been a b-b-bad d-day." My teeth were chattering so hard that it was difficult to talk.

He frowned at me. "You're frozen." He strode briskly toward me. Was this it? After everything, was I now going to be killed here in the snow? Better a quick shot than freezing to death.

He scooped me up in his arms and I squeaked in protest. The bird-thing was looking at me from his shoulder as though it was trying to decide how good my liver would taste when I died. When the tall man took off running in the snow, the bird-thing flew up into the air, keeping pace high above us. I kept squeaking as my poor, cold limbs jostled painfully against him as he ran.

He came to a tower of some sort and stopped. "Sorry, chica," he apologized before tossing me over his shoulder. I was upside-down, staring at his back. I lifted my head to see what was going on. He was climbing, I realized, one arm gripped tightly over the back of my thighs.

"Oooooh," I moaned softly. He was climbing fast and the ground looked so far away and I felt like I was just going to slide right off his back. And then he wasn't climbing anymore, and then we were inside.

There was a fire going, I could hear it. It was notably warmer inside. It was just a small room, I noticed as he put me down. A fire, a bed, some food or whatever, and a hole in the ceiling for the smoke. I sank down next to the fire gratefully and he wrapped me in a couple of blankets.

He picked up a green bottle, uncorked it with his teeth, and handed it to me. "Drink this. It'll help."

I took a drink and coughed as it hit the back of my throat. I'd had wine before, but this tasted like what came out of DT when I changed out all his oil. I tried to give the bottle back, but he shook his head. "Drink it," he said firmly. "You're frozen through."

I obediently drank, and choked again.

He chuckled at me for a moment before picking up his ECHO and talking into it. "Roland," he said. It was transmitting into his earpiece, I couldn't hear what was being said to him. "Yeah, I got it." He eyed me. "Found somethin' else, too." A pause. "I dunno, she's about a foot shorter than me-" Roland, or whoever he was talking to, cut him off. He chuckled again. "Yeah, you'll probably want to talk to her." To me, he said, "What's your name, chica?"

"Gaige." His bird-thing had sidled close to me and was- rubbing its head against my arm? Was this some sort of pre-feeding thing? I'd seen it fight, it would have NO problem tearing me into bird-sized pieces and having me for dinner. It looked even deadlier up close, all sharp beak and talons.

"Hear that?" A long pause. "Sure." Another pause. "If you say so, Roland." He closed the connection and put the ECHO down. He turned his attention back to me. He seemed to hesitate for a moment as he caught sight of his bird checking me for doneness or whatever. "Bloodwing likes ya." There was a note of disbelief on his voice. "You should feel honored, she doesn't like too many people." He lowered himself to the floor next to me and took the bottle from my hands. He had a long drink. Apparently we were on a germ-sharing basis, and I didn't even know his name. He passed the bottle back. "You're stuck with me for a few days, chica. Roland's got some new vault hunters joinin' up, he'll probably get them to come out here and get you."

"Who are you?" I asked, taking the bottle when he offered it back.

"The name's Mordecai. Drink." I obligingly drank. As I coughed, I could feel the warmth starting to spread a little painfully down to my toes. "We'll get you a gun- you shoot?"

"Uh, a little."

He chuckled at that. "We'll work on that. Even women of ass-kickery and science need to know how to shoot around here." It sounded just a little like he was laughing at me.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Maya**_

I hadn't known who or what the Firehawk was going to be, but it definitely wasn't Lilith. I hadn't really gotten a chance to talk to her before. There were bandits to kill and then we had to rush to rescue Roland and we hadn't really had the time.

Now, though, Roland was trying to get in touch with his spy in Tundra Express and we had a couple minutes to sit down and relax before, hopefully, a few hours of sleep.

We were sitting in the Crimson Raiders Headquarters. She'd made us each a mug of hot cocoa and we were seated at a small table, staring awkwardly at each other. I was grateful for the hot beverage. Pandora, it seemed, was a planet of harsh extremes. If it wasn't a desert wasteland, hot and dry with no escape from the burning sun, than it was frozen and covered in ice-crusted snow. Sanctuary was the latter, the town- which was built on top of an old mining ship- was surrounded by snow. Luckily, all of the buildings were pretty close together and trapped the heat in, so it wasn't quite as frozen inside as it was out there.

Lilith was a siren. Her tattoos had glowed orange when she'd been vanishing in and out of combat, but right now, at rest, they were as blue as mine. She'd used eridium to enhance her powers somehow. I remembered reading something somewhere about eridium related to sirens, and vaults. I wish I had all of my research books still, but they were worlds away.

"So," she said after a while. "You make people float, huh?"

I drank some cocoa while I tried to figure out how to answer that. "Phaselock, yeah. And I heal." She nodded, her red hair swinging around her face. "You mentioned that you met another siren?" She had, just before we'd left her lair. She'd said that Pandora seemed like a magnet for us.

She nodded, a rueful smile on her face. "Commandant Steele. She was a real bitch."

"Was?" I prodded.

"Dead. Since there can only be six of us, I'm assuming there's a poor little girl about out there dealing with all of this." She gestured to her own tattoos.

I sighed. "Yeah. I hope her parents are good to her."

"I hope the other kids are."

We fell into another silence, not quite so uncomfortable as the last one. I took a drink from my steaming mug and traced a scratch in the tabletop with a finger.

"That's what brought me here," she said, after a while. "I heard there was a siren on Pandora and wanted to see what that was all about. Of course it was her and she was a psychotic bitch... You know, good times."

I nodded. "Yeah. I read about sirens and vaults on Pandora, and the order was using me for extortion, so I figured I'd probably have a better time here. And then I..." I trailed off. I was not going to mention my romp between the sheets with the most hated man on Pandora. "Was on the train," I finished lamely.

"What about your companions? Is that the right word?"

I had to smile at that. "Getting used to them," I replied honestly. "Salvador snores like he's trying to compete with Jo-Jack for causing the most earthquakes." I cursed myself for the slip. _Jack_, I told myself fiercely. _The evil bastard's name is Jack._ "You'll get to experience that, I'm sure," I rushed on to cover for myself.

"What about the one with the turret- what's his name? He's pretty."

I had to laugh at that. "Axton? Sure he is. Just ask him." I paused. "They're... good. It's nice to know that there are people down here I can trust not to try and kill me, you know?" I took another drink. "What about you? What were your fellow vault hunters like?"

"Well, you've met Roland. He's different than he was. Mellowed out a lot. Mordecai, you'll... He's the spy in Tundra Express. He..." she paused, like she was searching for the right words. "He drinks a lot. He's probably drunk off his ass right now and that's why Roland can't reach him. He's apparently found some girl, you guys'll go and fetch her, I think." She smiled suddenly. "Brick is huge, with a big ol' heart. He's got a soft spot for kids, animals, anything cute or cuddly. Hyperion killed his dog, he went a little... crazy. We've all changed, I guess." The smile faded as she spoke. "It's been hard here. Pandora's a tough place to live, and even tougher to escape."

I tapped a fingertip against my mug, trying to figure out what to say, interrupted when Krieg rushed up the stairs. He stood there, staring at me, head cocked to one side like he was listening to something. He kept pretty close to me after the train had exploded. "What do you need?" I asked him softly. His presence was always just a little reassuring.

He stared at me, his one eye uncomfortably intense. "Nnngh, SILENCE THE LITTLE MAN!" he yelled at me, and took off as quickly as he'd appeared.

I sighed. Lilith was staring after him, looking somewhat bemused. "Is he always so..."

"Crazy? Yes. Sometimes I swear he says something normal, but then that happens."

"He seems to stick pretty close," she said, echoing what I'd just been thinking. That was the second time he'd done that since we'd been sitting there.

I nodded. "We had a mutual life-saving event, I think he's just trying to make sure I'm still ok." I smiled a little. "I don't know exactly what he has going on in his head, but he's almost... sweet."

"Nice body, too," Lilith chimed in and I shot her a look. "Sorry," she replied with an uncomfortable laugh. "I've never really done the whole girl-friend thing."

"Me neither," I replied honestly. "The Brothers were all... Brothers. Men."

"I bet that got a little awkward."

It was my turn to laugh. "It did. I was a bit of a late bloomer, but then one day I woke up with breasts and there was a sudden increase in the preaching about inappropriate thoughts. In the later years, I was getting a little sick of still being 'child' and I started... corrupting them."

Lilith snorted. "Bet that wasn't hard."

"No. I mean, it was never very good either, but it was satisfying in a rebellious sort-of way."

"Do you miss them?"

I shook my head quickly. "Not at all. I miss the quiet... And the temperature..." Here she nodded knowingly. "But they never really treated me like a person. Here at least, you... them..." I gestured out toward the balcony. "You all take me seriously, treat me like an actual person."

The way she nodded, I knew she understood. The silence was companionable as we finished our drinks.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Gaige**_

I was woken up by the ungodly shrieking outside. My head spun a little bit as I lifted it to squint at the entryway. We'd had entirely too much to drink the night before after taking out another Hyperion convoy. I nudged Mordy with my foot. He was sprawled out near my feet. "Why are they doing that?" I asked him when he opened his eyes, wincing at the noise.

He pulled himself upright. "Must be a signal, I'd bet my last two bottles of rakk ale that the vault hunters are here."

I wrinkled my nose. "No, thank you." Rakk ale was nasty. As soon as I got out of the Tundra Express- SUPER appropriate name- I was never touching it again. There, though, it was just so cold and rakk ale sure warmed you up. You know, just before it knocked you on your ass.

He picked up the green bottle beside him and took a long swig before handing it to me. I drank too, hair of the dog or whatever. "You should go down there and meet them. I'll ECHO."

I wrinkled my nose and took another long drink. Outside. I hated outside. I found my hat and pulled it on before picking up my shotgun. There had been no shortage of guns out there for me to choose from.

I handed the bottle back. "Thanks, Mordy." Obviously not for the rakk ale. OBVIOUSLY.

He put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me for just a moment. "Hey. Be careful out there, amiga."

"Yeah. You too." I scratched the top of Bloodwing's feathery head and stepped outside and began the descent down the tower. It wasn't so bad when my limbs weren't all, you know, frozen and numb. I checked my HUD- thanks, Dahl- and started walking in the direction of these other vault hunters. Mordy had explained all about the Crimson Raiders, which I was unofficially a part of now. Unofficially, until I met Roland. Crimson Raider sounded better than Vault Hunter, anyway. Handsome Jack was an asshole and he needed to be stopped. When I got to talk to my dad again, "Hey, I stopped the fascist dictator," would sound way better than, "Hey, I opened up this vault-thing and there was a nasty monster inside- and no loot!" That's what had happened to Mordy.

They were expecting me, the vault hunters, which was good. There were five of them and one of me and even with my new gun and shield generator, they would obliterate me. I lifted my prosthetic arm in a wave. "Hi!" I called.

The guy with the brown hair said something I couldn't hear to the guy with the blue hair and they shared one of those, we're-manly-men-joking-about-sex, laughs. I could feel myself blushing, but at least I could blame it on the cold or whatever.

The lady closed her eyes and shook her head, then opened them and took a step toward me. Lady- was she a siren? Holy shit. An actual siren, standing right in front of me. This was CRAZY. "You must be Gaige," she said to me and I nodded. "Why didn't Mordecai answer his ECHO about the intel earlier?"

I stopped walking a few feet away from all of them and peered up at her. "When?"

"Last night? This morning?"

I shrugged. "We hit a Hyperion convoy yesterday and then there was, um, celebrating, and then a lot of passing out. You guys had to come out here anyway..." I knew about the train. There wasn't a whole lot to do in Mordy's tower other than drink, talk, and take potshots at bandits and varkid. On the plus side, I was a lot more confident in my shooting abilities. Also my drinking abilities.

"Celebrating?" I saw her nostrils flare. "Are you... drunk?"

"Hell no!" I exclaimed. "Hung over." I may or may not have been just a little bit still-drunk. My awe of her being a siren was quickly fading under her crankiness. "I'm, uh, Gaige? We're gonna go blow up a train or whatever?"

"Yeah, that's what he said." She looked at me, she looked a little pissed. "Are we not even going to meet him? How the hell do we know this is information is any good?"

"I hacked the computer that had the message on it about it. It's good. What's eating you?"

"We have to come all the way out here because Mordecai wouldn't answer his ECHO, we're getting second-hand information, and you're hungover. Or still drunk." She was pretty pissed.

"If it makes you feel any better, rakk ale is absolutely awful." The short man behind her burst into loud laughter again. "And you would have had to come out here anyway 'cause the train comes right up there." I pointed behind her, high in the snowy cliffs. Mordy had shown me from his tower.

Her eyes closed for longer-than-a-blink and then she opened them again and picked up her ECHO. "Roland, we made contact with your spy and..." she looked at me. "The girl."


	8. Chapter 8

_**Maya**_

I stared at Sanctuary as it hung there in the sky. A whole city. She'd phased the whole city. I wanted to keep pushing on to reach Sanctuary, but I'd been outvoted. Krieg, well, he didn't really have an opinion beyond ranting about pain and blood. Zer0 hadn't expressed a preference, but Axton, Salvador, and the girl- Gaige- had wanted to take a break. We'd been going nonstop since we'd left for Tundra Express.

The girl was young. She'd surprised me with her lack of complaints, and she and her 'Deathtrap' were pretty good in a fight. After my initial irritation she'd actually grown on me a little. She'd been quiet for most of the time I'd known her, but she was currently splitting a bottle of Truxican beer with Salvador. I didn't know where they got it from and I probably didn't want to.

The sun was still high, of course. Pandora's day/night cycle was really different. Still wasn't used to it. That was part of the reason I wanted to push on to Sanctuary. We were in a shelter of sorts, it had a ceiling and there was shade, but we were still outside and it was really hard for me to sleep outside under the sun.

I pulled my sleeping gear out of my storage deck and tried to get comfortable as much as I could. The temperature here was actually reasonable, for once. Maybe that on its own could convince me to sleep. I stared at the ceiling, mind wandering...

I was startled out of my reverie by a nudge to my arm. "Want some?" the girl offered me. "It'll help you sleep." She was holding out the bottle of beer to me.

I sat up and took the bottle. "Thanks." I eyed it dubiously for a moment before taking a drink. It tasted like... skag urine. I made a face and handed it back. "What's in that?"

"Old family recipe," Salvador said, sitting down on my bedding beside me. Gaige was sitting just in front of us. Apparently personal space wasn't really big on Pandora or wherever the girl came from. I was a little shocked to find that I didn't really mind their companionable closeness.

"It's better than rakk ale," Gaige said and took a drink before passing the bottle to Salvador, who grunted in acknowledgment.

"Ain't you a little young to be an alcohol connoisseur, darlin'?" Axton drawled from where he was crouching in the full sunshine, doing some sort of maintenance on his turret, causing her to stick her tongue out at him.

I glanced around for our other companions. Krieg was already fast asleep and I couldn't help but envy him, just a little. He was curled up behind me, close enough that I could reach out and touch his shoulder. Zer0 was sitting apart from the rest of us, not moving. Was he sleeping? Was he meditating? Was he even breathing?

A sharp poke to my ankle made me snap my head over to look at Gaige. She gestured silently to the commando, who was... Oh my. Dahl military had apparently done wonders for his physique. His shirt was discarded on the ground beside him and he was crouched in front of his turret, back to us. His back, his shoulders, his ass... My hormones surged at the sight. He wasn't a fascist dictator, right? I shook my head as if to clear it. _Damn_.

"You ladies like what you see?" he asked.

Gaige picked up a small rock from the floor and fired it at him. It hit the dirt right next to his feet and he laughed. "What happened to your wife?" she asked.

"My... wife?"

"That is a shiiiiiiny rock around your neck, Axton." She sure didn't miss much. She took a drink from what looked like a new bottle- it was almost full.

"Ex-wife. 6 years. Course it was really more like a year and a half since she was my CO and we spent a lot of time apart. We had... irreconcilable differences."

"Ouch," she said with a wince and I nodded in agreement.

"Lucky for you, means I'm available." He turned and winked at her.

She giggled. "FLIRT." She handed the bottle to Salvador. "How 'bout you, Sal? Married?"

"No," he shook his head. "I have problemas with the senoritas."

"Aww, come on. You're awesome. I bet you'll be married just as soon as we're done here and you're all a hero or whatever." Was she drunk? She was starting to slur her words a little.

"What about you, darlin'?" came Axton's voice. "You married?"

"Seriously? I'm 18. I'm- I was in high school."

"What happened to your arm, then? Since we're asking personal questions and all," he teased.

"Cut it off," she replied nonchalantly.

"_You_ did?" I asked, slightly alarmed.

"Sure. I had a shop accident and I was all, 'well, I COULD fix it or I could cut it off and build an awesome one to put Deathtrap in!'"

No one really had anything to say to that. That was... Insane. Then again, maybe I wasn't really in a position to judge. How did cutting off your own arm for science compare to being raised to be a goddess for the dual purposes of extortion and control?

"You a virgin, then? Nerds are usually virgins." Axton was teasing the poor girl mercilessly. I opened my mouth to say something, but she cut me off.

"I thought you were 'available,' why don't you find out?" she shot back.

I closed my eyes for just a moment. "Why don't we try and sleep," I suggested quickly before he could reply.

Salvador was laughing, Axton was chuckling, and Gaige's face was about the same shade as her hair. The noise caused Krieg to stir and he twitched a little and muttered something before settling back down.


End file.
